Health Care, Senate Slippage

From the Grace Marie-Turner of the Galen Institute, chronicling the Senate’s struggles over the health care bill, “Vapor Agreement.”

Polls: And then more poll numbers started rolling in. Yesterday’s CNN result was the worst yet, showing that the American people oppose the Senate’s health reform effort. It found 61% oppose and only 36% support the efforts.

The National Federation of Independent Business came out strongly last week against the Senate bill, saying it “is short on savings and long on costs, is the wrong reform, at the wrong time and will increase healthcare costs and the cost of doing business.” And a new coalition of leading business organizations, including the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation, and many others said it “will lead to higher costs and increased burdens on small businesses. The bill will cause greater damage to our economy and health care system …[and] will impose new burdens on small businesses.”

In the face of this opposition, how on earth are they going to move forward with a bill that still has major problems in the two weeks before Christmas with vulnerable senators facing certain public backlash in election battles next year?

Rich Lowry of The National Review reports Senate Majority Leader Reid’s bill to be “tottering,” after oversold claims earlier in the week of a new compromise improving the legislation’s prospects.